Date published October 2008
ISBN 978-0-373-27603-5
Romantic Suspense
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Gina
Called to an intense hostage taking, Dace Recker is prepared to take on the suspect with no holds barred. What he finds on arrival isn’t just a hostage taker with more intel that he could imagine. Oh no, he finds the woman who crushed in heart less than two years before. To Dace’s mind she took his heart, stomped on it, crushed it and tossed the broken pieces away on her headlong flight out of town.
When Jolie Conrad left Metro for LAPD 18 months before it wasn’t just to leave Dace behind. More than that it was to put some distance between the devastating heartbreak of losing her baby boy, Sammy. Now she not only has to negotiate with a suspect who has taken a number of hostages captive, but he’s using a little boy who could be Sammy as his shield.
Both Jolie and Dace are consummate professionals and the victims are clearly their first priority. Putting aside their own personal pain, anguish and resentment, they begin the long, draining process of talking down the hostage taker. The goal to get the hostages and the man who goes by “John” out of the bank with no further deaths. Due to the pending arrival of the FBI, Dace and Jolie need to work fast to win over John and get him out of the bank. His surrender, however, is not to be because the FBI arrives on scene. Just as it seems as if John is coming around, several explosions rack the bank and surrounding area. In seconds John escapes, the hostages are freed and Jolie and Dace begin to take the steps to ensure they will not have to work with each other again.
Unfortunately, the choice to go their own way is taken out of their hands when an attempt is made on both their lives. Now in a race against time Dace and Jolie need to find John’s cohorts before they kill every last member of the SWAT team. Add to that an attraction, no, more than an attraction, a love that never died, they are dealt a hand neither has ever wanted.
What a pleasure to read a well thought out, finely researched, excellently written book that held my attention from the opening salvo to the heartfelt conclusion. Kylie Brant writes the kind of stories that are best started when you don’t have to get up the next day because once you start reading, you won’t want to put it down. Having sat in the note taker position as a non-sworn member of a police department I am perhaps more critical of scenes that reflect such activities. Ms. Brant got it down and got it down perfectly.
One problem I find with books of under 275 pages are that something is generally sacrificed to tell the story. Either a character is short changed in his or her development, scenes lack detail or the story misses a beat here or there. Not so with Kylie Brant and TERMS OF SURRENDER. Her characters are fully drawn, totally believable while at the same time could be someone you actually know. I could feel the concussion of the explosives in the story, the dread of lying next to someone I loved hoping against hope that a shooter didn't kill them, the loss of a baby through one of the most heartbreaking ways a parent can lose a child simply because of Ms. Brant’s writing. She knows how to tell a story the reader can relate to.
The story is well crafted, introducing characters at just the right time, giving insights into each’s very different lives and backgrounds. The ending was an interesting blend of “I thought so” and total surprise.
Trixie was an interesting study for me. With elements I think many readers can relate to if not in a mother, at least in someone they know, you want to shake her and tell her to go ahead and hurry to the great beyond. Jolie’s mixed emotions about Trixie, her mother, are played out with style and finesse. We all know people who aren’t likeable, but our very human natures keep us from turning them away.
I was thrilled to learn that TERMS OF SURRENDER is part of a three book series and am a bit grumbly that I have to wait for the next two in the series. I’m ready dig into TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT now! Because TERMS OF SURRENDER is a Harlequin and therefore a limited print period, run, don’t walk to pick up your copy.
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